Donations to Political Parties

The majority voted against a motion on political donations that was introduced by Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) Australia's biggest ethanol producer, Manildra, has donated over $4.1 million to political parties since 1998-99 and was granted twenty meetings with the NSW Minister before a new law on the NSW Ethanol Mandate was passed,

(ii) the Productivity Commission has recommended that the policy designed to increase ethanol use by NSW motorists should be dropped, and that the mandate that 6 per cent of all petrol sold by major retailers in NSW must be ethanol may not achieve the claimed environmental benefits,

(iii) the most recent data from the federal Department of Environment and Energy shows that the E10 program has been a massive flop in its first five months and E10's share of all petrol sold in NSW during this period fell from 24.5 per cent in 2016 to 23.9 per cent this year, and

(iv) these developments add to the perception that corporate political donations have a corrupting influence on the political process; and

(b) calls on the Government to ban donations from industries which pose a particular threat to the integrity and perceived integrity of the electoral system.